It seems the arrogant mentality that influenced the Brexit vote is now trying to shape terms of the negotiations with the EU using delusional theories about “The Special Deal” the UK is able to secure with the EU-well guess what, this is sure to fail for a simple reason; the EU is obviously in no mood to provide special treatment for the UK in exiting the union particularly with the way Eurosceptics made the case during & before the referendum. This compounded with the fact that the EU’s priority has to be to protect its own future as a strong political/economic block.
One proposition to work around this mess is focus some effort in developing consistent/effective policy/infrastructure (in consultation with stakeholders to bring some reality into the mix)-one that encourages trade/investment and can be used as a template for negotiating bilateral trade deals as well as in similar negotiations with trading blocks. This will prevent (or minimize) delays in negotiating such deals and will give confidence to the UK’s position in the process. The perception of ad hoc policy/lack of strategic planning and reliance on independent negotiations with future trading partners demonstrates weakness that will inevitably hurt our position. I would also suggest avoiding terms of hard/soft Brexit altogether as it does not serve the negotiating process.
Finally I still call on the government to put any terms of an agreement reached to another referendum and should be agreed within the current negotiations with the EU. This has to be the democratic process we should pursue.